Dhaka: Experts at a discussion here on Tuesday urged the government to follow the mechanisms of international standard in spending allocations on climate projects, aiming to ensure the highest level of integrity, transparency and accountability in overall management of its adaptation funds.

Following the Paris Agreement, Bangladesh and other climate-affected countries must work together for building individual and collective capacity to ensure the highest level of integrity, transparency and accountability to offset a range of governance deficits, which can adversely affect the adaptation efforts of vulnerable countries, they said.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) organised the daylong ‘Integrity Dialogue on Climate Change Adaptation Finance Transparency: Accountability and Participation’ at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).

Speaking at the concluding session of the dialogue, Technical Adviser of Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Executive Director of Centre for Global Change Dr Ahsan Uddin Ahmed said inclusiveness is not practiced in Bangladesh’s climate projects, which is really a problem here.

Observing that public information disclosure is really neglected in climate adaptation fund management, he said the traditional financial mindset should be changed in the institutions working on climate projects.

Replying to a question about the GCF management, the climate expert said developing countries always put political pressure during the GCF Board meeting to revise its earlier decisions to provide more allocations to climate vulnerable counties.  

Addressing as the chief guest on the occasion, Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh Masud Ahmed acknowledged that it will take a little bit of time to reach the international standards in fund management, but his office has so far successfully audited more than a hundred climate projects.  

He said his office has already audited 102 projects related climate change but it has audit objections in all projects to some extent.

Speaking on the sideline of the dialogue, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said corruption, ambiguity and nepotism exist in climate projects implementing in the country like other projects.

He said Bangladesh must prove that it has the capacity to use climate adaptation funds in a transparent way to get fund from the GCF. He also said TIB is keen to ensure that proper action is taken to shield climate finance are free from governance deficits.

Earlier, speakers at the inaugural session voiced concern about the absence of concrete and time-bound commitment from the developed countries, meager flow of grant-based public fund, mal-adaptation or non- consideration of the local climate risks in adaptation projects and programmes and non-disclosure of project-related information.  

The other areas of concern included the inadequate participation of local communities in adaptation planning and monitoring of the implementation projects, absence of meaningful grievance redress system and complicated finance and accounting system.  

They unanimously agreed that climate change funds are not free from governance weaknesses. As many cases of irregularities in the planning and implementation phases of climate projects have already come under spotlight, it is now the high time for precautionary action worldwide, they said.  

The speakers also highlighted that there should be transparency and accountability on the part of developed countries.  

They urged the developed countries to fully implement their commitment abiding by the polluters pay principle where the affected developing countries would get climate finance as grant and not as loan.  

Director of International Center for Climate Change and Development Dr Saleemul Huq, Member of Bangladesh Delegation to COP-21 Dr Fazle Rabbi Sadek and Lead Analyst of Adaptation Fund NGO Network Alpha Kaloga spoke in the first technical session on ‘Scope and Challenges in Adaptation Finance - Sustained Flow of Fund after the Paris Agreement.

The session on Transparency, Accountability and Participation in Adaptation Finance: Developed Country Perspective was addressed by Emeritus Professor of BRAC University Ainun Nishat, Research Fellow of Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law (Griffith University, Australia) Dr Timothy Mark Cadman and Director of Climate Action Network in South Asia (CANSA) from India Sanjoy Vashisht.

Delegates from Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and the USA along with reputed local experts made their deliberations on multi-dimensional aspects of climate finance issues.